Faith leaders and civil society advocates gathered at a United Nations side event on Tuesday to call for a fundamental overhaul of the global financial system, emphasizing how it exacerbates inequality, climate injustice, and crippling debt in the Global South.
The event, titled “New International Financial and Economic Architecture: Faith-Based Perspectives on Financing the Future,” was held alongside the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4).
Organized by a coalition including the World Communion of Reformed Churches, World Council of Churches, Lutheran World Federation, World Methodist Council, Council for World Mission and United Society Partners in the Gospel the gathering highlighted growing frustration that faith voices are excluded from critical global financial discussions.
“Ten years ago in Ethiopia, our expertise was welcomed,” said Uhuru Dempers, economic and social justice coordinator at the Council of Churches in Namibia. “Now in Spain, despite having concrete solutions, we are denied meaningful participation.”
Dempers described the debt crisis as a “spiritual and moral wound,” emphasizing that debt is not just economic but a justice issue. “It determines whether governments can fund hospitals and schools or must divert scarce resources to repay unjust loans to private creditors.”
Namibia’s experience illustrates the stakes. In 2024, the government spent more than 12 billion Namibian dollars on debt repayments—equal to its entire development budget. “Our health system is collapsing. Clinics lack medicines. Malnutrition affects 30 to 40 percent of children in many regions,” Dempers said.
He called for faith communities to lead change through the New International Financial and Economic Architecture (NIFEA), a framework developed by churches to promote tax justice, debt relief, reparations, and climate action.
“NIFEA is rooted in biblical principles and economic justice. It draws on declarations like the São Paulo Declaration and the Accra Convention and centers on empowering marginalized communities,” Dempers said. “Current institutions like the IMF and World Bank were designed for post-WWII needs of the Global North. They have failed the Global South.” He added that key economic decision-making should move to the United Nations, which itself requires reform to better represent marginalized voices.
The NIFEA platform advocates for progressive global tax reform, a legally binding UN tax convention, and closing loopholes enabling multinational tax avoidance. It supports financial transaction taxes and environmental levies to curb pollution and emissions.
This year’s Jubilee-inspired Turn Debt into Hope campaign, a faith-driven initiative, demands cancellation of unjust debt and enhanced domestic resource mobilization to tackle intersecting crises.
Economist Priya Lukka, macroeconomist at the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and chief development economist for Christian Aid, stressed the need to ground financial reform in reparative justice and community power.
“Nearly 70% of international climate finance today is delivered as debt, not grants or reparations,” Lukka said. “This deepens dependency for vulnerable countries, limiting their climate response and worsening the debt crisis.” She connected the climate and debt crises to historical and ongoing colonial exploitation.
“The 2022 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report acknowledged how systemic inequities increase climate vulnerability,” Lukka said. “This confirms the global economic model remains rooted in colonialism.”
Lukka called for a financial architecture centered on climate justice and informed by a full reckoning of cumulative emissions and colonial history. “Development financing must go beyond technical fixes to embrace moral repair and redistribution,” she said. “Those suffering most today did not cause climate change.” She urged sovereign debt cancellation as vital climate reparation and warned against decarbonization strategies that perpetuate extraction and inequality.
Lukka also highlighted reparative actions like land restitution to Indigenous peoples and democratizing decision-making to amplify voices from Southern economies. She outlined three justice principles for economic reform: distributional justice (fair resource sharing), procedural justice (inclusive policy participation), and historical justice (addressing past harms). “These principles must guide any new financial system and underpin campaigns like Turn Debt into Hope,” Lukka said.
Adding into the broader conversation on economic justice, Dr. Dean Dettloff of Development and Peace – Caritas Canada emphasized faith’s vital role in challenging exploitative economic systems.
“Over three billion people live in countries spending more on debt interest than on health or education,” Dettloff said. “Private creditors profit while governments underinvest in their people. Faith communities provide courage and imagination to say: this system can change.”
He spotlighted the Turn Debt into Hope campaign’s call for canceling unjust debt, reforming financial governance, and establishing a democratic debt resolution process at the UN—a proposal facing resistance from wealthier nations at FfD4. “Faith communities are organized around shared commitments and have significant collective influence. Harnessing that power is key to demanding debt justice,” Dettloff said.
The event concluded with a call for greater civil society inclusion in global financial decision-making. Dempers recalled the UN Charter’s opening words: “We, the peoples,” underscoring that civil society represents those peoples and must have a seat at the negotiating table.
As FfD4 negotiations proceed, faith leaders and civil society vow to intensify efforts to promote NIFEA—calling for a just, equitable, and sustainable global financial system.
